LOS ANGELES - A comeback bid fell short and the 13th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team suffered its first Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) loss Saturday by a score of 15-12 at 12th-ranked Loyola Marymount. 

With the loss, UC San Diego drops to 11-11 overall and, more importantly, 6-1 in the WWPA. LMU improves to 15-5 and 7-0.

Three teams entered the day with 6-0 marks in the WWPA - LMU, UC San Diego, and UC Davis. With WWPA Tournament seeds on the line, the Aggies play at LMU on Nov. 3 and at UC San Diego on Nov. 5 to wrap up the regular season. The tourney is set for Nov. 18-20 at Loyola Marymount. 

HOW IT HAPPENED 
With UC San Diego trailing 12-8 heading into the fourth quarter, Bennett Axline, Kaden Likins, and Rhys Bugelli netted three unanswered goals to open the period and get the Tritons back within one at 12-11 with 3:52 left in the game. However, the Lions responded with three-straight goals to go up 15-11 while leaving just 39 seconds on the clock. UC San Diego's Matthew Wastila scored on a power play with nine ticks left and that proved to be the end of the scoring.

LMU scored the first five goals of the game - four of those coming in the first quarter - to race out to a sizable advantage. After being shutout in the first quarter, the Tritons kept pace in the second as both teams scored four goals, leaving the score at 8-4 in favor of the Lions heading into halftime.

The third period was a reflection of the second as both teams again scored four times each.

Bugelli and Likins finished with three goals each. It was the ninth time this season that Bugelli, a sophomore, recorded at least three goals in a game. Likins, a junior, tacked on an assist for four points in the game.

Triton goalie Alexander Nemeth made nine saves.

David Carrasco led the Lions on offense by scoring seven goals and adding three assists for 10 points. Joseph Cavazos and Blazo Mitrovic each scored three times. Stelios Dalmaras was solid in net, turning aside 13 UC San Diego bids.

The Tritons out-shot the Lions, 36-31, but scored just two goals in 18 power play opportunities.

WHAT HEAD COACH MATT USTASZEWSKI HAD TO SAY
"Obviously we are disappointed to lose our first conference game of the season. You can't win a water polo game with the way we started and credit goes to LMU for jumping on us from the very first sprint. We demonstrated what we are capable of in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to one goal, but we must execute with higher precision in the opening quarter."

TRITON TIDBITS
• With his hat trick today, Rhys Bugelli remains the lone Triton to have scored in all 22 of the team's games.
• It was the third overall meeting and first conference game of the season between the two teams, with LMU now holding a 2-1 edge in 2022.
• UC San Diego defeated LMU, 14-8, on Sept. 24 at Stanford, while the Lions topped the Tritons, 10-9, in sudden victory on Sept. 21 in La Jolla.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego hosts UC Davis on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 5 p.m. in the final WWPA game of the season for both teams. PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.